Time and the Tree 23 



dangerous thing. The Swiss Lacustrines raised 

 wheat four thousand years ago, but less to the 

 acre than does the wheat-farmer of to-day. Knowl- 

 edge outlined at agricultural colleges is not unlike 

 prepared food; it has the ingredients of nutriment. 

 But we prefer ordinary meat and drink. For 

 extraordinary service, for much labor in brief time, 

 for the weariness and exhaustion of great risks, 

 and for carrying capacity cut down to lowest 

 terms, as when reaching the Poles, or marching 

 against the enemy, — concentrated food has its 

 uses. 



It is every man's experience that he must know 

 his machine, his task, his labor, in order to utilize 

 the scientific conclusions duly worked out in his 

 own vocation. The fruit-grower must know his 

 own land, his own soil — its composition, vitality, 

 productivity. Fruit-instinct is a pearl of great 

 price. The best horseman has best horse-sense 

 and the word has become the world's metaphor. 

 Fruit instinct is not given with diplomas at agri- 

 cultural colleges. As Webster said of eloquence: 

 " It cannot be brought from far; it exists in the man 

 and in the occasion.** The fruit-grower with 

 fruit-instinct can raise fruit despite agrictdtural 

 college, or experimental station, just as the man 

 with the scholar's instinct may become learned 

 despite Harvard or Wisconsin. There is a sub- 

 stitute for instinct and that is knowledge; it is not 

 instinct. They differ. A farmer by instinct will 

 always raise more cherries to the acre than will the 



